Tuesday, September 09, 2008

Last night theatrical legends Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt stopped by their old home, Ten Chimneys, in Genessee Depot, Wisconsin. They didn’t take the train from New York this time but channeled themselves through Heidi Wermuth and Eric Bultman. The two actors, members of this season’s inaugural class of the Milwaukee Rep’s Internship Program, starred in Ten Chimney’s inaugural play reading of the season, “O Mistress Mine.” A night of firsts, including new chair cushions for the audience.

It’s a given that such an audience is passionate about theater, historic preservation and the Lunts (above) — but in what order is anybody’s guess. That’s only one of the obstacles the actors faced when they walked out. Bare stage, bare chairs, no costumes or props other than big black binders with the text of the play.

Just bright lights pouring down on the seven people on stage and larger than life portraits of the Lunts staring at them from all sides. Enough to strike terror into any actor’s heart let alone the first night out — for a one-time-only reading.

With tone of voice, speaking looks and mostly restrained gestures, the group quickly transported us to a London drawing room in 1945. And Wermuth and Bultman had the looks, the chemistry, the smooth manner of the famous acting duo. I’m keeping my program to remember all these names; someday they just may join the Lunts on the wall.

Monday, September 08, 2008

Picture London in 1945, bombs still falling. People still going out to the theater, desperate to be distracted. Enter a couple of Americans who accomplish the job in a frothy escapist romp by playwright Terence Rattigan.

The war ends and the two Americans — Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne — come home to Wisconsin to rest up at their farm before hitting Broadway to star in “O Mistress Mine.” The Lunts “have long been the most famous stage couple in the world — and year in, year out, probably the best box office,” according to the roundup of “New Plays in Manhattan” that appeared in TIME magazine on Monday, Feb. 4, 1946.

In fact, “O Mistress Mine” was the longest-running and most commercially-successful play in the Lunts’ illustrious career, running for four years, on Broadway and on tour. And now, more than 50 years later, I’m going down to the pair’s famed farm outside of Milwaukee — Ten Chimneys — for a reading of Rattigan’s play by a new generation of actors who are part of the Milwaukee Rep’s Artistic Internship Program.

I’ve toured the Lunts’ “farm” and can assure you that it’s like no farm you’ve ever visited — but this will be my first “reading.” Knowing the level of dedication that characterizes every aspect of Ten Chimneys means it will be worth the drive from Madison. In addition to the regular tours, there are half a dozen events scheduled this fall that offer a glimpse into the bygone theatrical days of the Lunts. Should you find yourself in southern Wisconsin, don’t miss a chance to experience Ten Chimneys for yourself. (Here is the story I wrote when the estate first opened to the public).

RATTIGAN’S PLAY
“O Mistress Mine” is the story of an attractive but broke widow who has been living in sumptuous sin with a wartime British Cabinet Minister, again according to TIME magazine 1946. “Then her priggish, pinko 17-year-old son comes home after five years at school in Canada. He forces his mother to choose between him and her lover.” The son was played by Dick van Patten who “grew up with the Lunts.” He’ll be at Ten Chimneys in November for a “Conversation” about those days.

If the title sounds familiar, it's from Shakespeare. If Rattigan’s name sounds familiar that’s because many of his plays were turned into films including “Separate Tables,” “The Browning Version” and “The Winslow Boy.”

SHAKSPEARE’S SONG
The title of the play, “O Mistress Mine,” is also the title of one of a number of songs Shakespeare inserted into his plays. It appears in “Twelfth Night”:

O mistress mine, Where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, Your true love's coming.
O stay and hear your true love's coming.
That can sing, that can sing both high and low.
Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey's end in lover's meeting,
Ev'ry wise man's son doth know,
Ev'ry wise man's son doth know.

What is love? 'tis not hereafter.
Present mirth hath present laughter:
What's to come is still unsure:
What's to come, what's to come is still unsure.
In delay there is no plenty:
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty
Youth's a stuff will not endure,
Youth's a stuff will not endure!

THE MUSIC
What these songs sounded like originally is anyone’s guess. My favorite version is in the 1996 film where it’s sung — along with a number of other “songs” — by Ben Kingsley. A soundtrack was released but I’ve never been able to find a copy.

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Joni at Cote De Texas continues to amaze and inspire with her long posts devoted to one topic. The most recent, “A Swede Designs,” considers Lars Bolander, a Swede living and working in the U.S. who designs with a distinctly Gustavian attitude. The post is long and luscious with depictions of Gustavian style, both by Bolander and others.

But ultimately it sent me to my bookshelf to ferret out my favorite tomes on all things Swedish — actually, on all things Scandinavian. Up here, where we speak Minnesotan and Wisconsin, we find inspiration equally in Denmark, Finland, Norway and, yes, even Iceland.

Among many images, Cote de Texas showcased Bolander’s stunning new house on Oland Island. And for those who had their magnifiers out, you may have noticed the article about this new home was written by Elizabeth Gaynor, author of two superb books that are definitely worth owning. The following titles offer Scandinavian fare that may be unfamiliar as they are not recent publications, but all are worth searching out if you want to learn about the full spectrum of Scandinavian design.

They are arranged by broad themes and include a variety of eras and styles. So you’ll find Gustavian as well as many of the designers we think of as mid-century modern: Poul Henningsen, Alvar Aalto, Arne Jakobsen, Finn Juhl, Vernor Panton — and my personal favorite, Hans Wegner. You’ll also find the country home of Armi Ratia, the Finish woman who created Marimekko, and the sophisticated urban flat of her son, Ristomatti.

“Swedish Interiors,” by Rhonda Eleish and Edie Van Breems (Gibbs Smith, 2007) looks at Swedish design in the U.S. I can’t ignore the two Midwestern homes detailed in the book since both are here in Wisconsin: Ten Chimneys, the fabled home of the theatrical team of Alfred Lunt and Lynn Fontanne in Genesee Depot; and New Sundborn, the Loran Nordgren ranch in Coon Valley.

Nordgren's home pays homage to artists Carl and Karin Larson, and like Ten Chimneys, is bright and lively. The two are in stark contrast to almost all the other houses where the more typical Swedish blues, grays and Gustavian furniture predominate.

Carl and Karin Larsson decorated and embellished the interior of their home in colors and a style that were innovations for the era, the late 1880s. Today the couple and their home are widely known and loved (see “Carl Larsson’s Home;” Addison-Wesley, 1978) as are Carl’s charming paintings that showed the family going about their daily lives in the highly personal home (see “Carl Larsson: A Home;” G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1974).

Lest you think Scandinavian design is all pale gray and blue, I leave you with this image of my favorite sweater (and matching mitts) from the glorious house of Oleana, whose designs are based on Norwegian folk costumes.